Name That Baby! My Tips & Trends for 2014

Naming my fourth baby was harder than the first three. All the names on our list that we didn’t use for the first three didn’t make the cut, as somehow I felt if they hadn’t been picked the first time they weren’t as good. So we really had to start from scratch.

I did have some rules that we had followed for all of our kids and wanted to do the same this time. I have to say, rules can help if you are having a tough time picking a name. We have three guidelines we followed for all of our children: first, the first name has to be traditional and of English/Irish or French origin, due to our heritage and so that the names fit nicely together. The second rule is that there should be a cool, shorter version of the first name that we love. Our final naming rule is that we always use a place or street that has had a particular meaning for our family for the middle name.

While I did find some of the lists of popular names useful, I found that so many focus exclusively on the most popular names. If you want something original this isn’t always the best approach! Now that I’ve wrapped up our most recent naming process, I wanted to share some of the more original names I discovered with the hopes that you might find something that sparks your creativity to choose something beyond the usual Jayden and Ashley.

Celebrity Name Trend: Rock n’ Roll

I was surprised at how many recent celebs have gone with musically-inspired names. Of course, you don’t have to be a celeb to give your babe an early start on being rockstar:

Axl Jack (Fergie and Josh Duhamel); Apollo Bowie Flynn (Gwen Stefani and Gavin Rossdale); Kaius Jagger (Rachel Zoe and Roger Bermann); Lyric Sonny Roads Goldberg (Soleil Moon Frye and husband)

Other Inspirational Celebrity Picks

I also came across several celebrity names that felt incredibly fresh and unique; your perfect baby name may be among these:

Hazel (John Krasinski and Emily Blunt); Sid (Jason Biggs & Jenny Mollen); TWO tots named Bodhi (Brian Austin Green and Megan Fox, and Theresa Palmer and Mark Webber); Annabel (James Van Der Beek + wife Kimberly); Bennett Armistead (Laura Linney and husband); Dahlia Rae (Gail Simmons and husband); Shepherd (Jared Padalecki and wife)

True Originals

Beyond the pages of People Magazine and Us Weekly, I did find quite a few creative names for babies that I haven’t seen around the playground that much:

GIRLS: Bette, Blanche, Clementine, Dolly, Henrietta, Honora, Lake, Wren

BOYS: Channing, Houston, Hugh, Hamish, Ike, Prescott, Stellan, Ward, Win

If you are currently knee-deep in picking a name for your baby, I hope this helps! And remember, whatever name you choose, you will end up loving it because it belongs to your baby.